Why can't you go car shopping in Illinois on Sunday?

Over a dozen dealerships sit along 159th Street, know as Auto Row, in Tinley Park and Orland Park. Sen. Jim Oberweis is trying to bring an end to a statewide ban on Sunday car sales.

Over a dozen dealerships sit along 159th Street, know as Auto Row, in Tinley Park and Orland Park. Sen. Jim Oberweis is trying to bring an end to a statewide ban on Sunday car sales. (Gary Middendorf, For the Daily Southtown)

For just a moment, it looked like there was a move afoot in the General Assembly to allow auto dealers in Illinois to sell cars on Sundays. Now it's as dead as your car is when you leave the lights on all night.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, wouldn't require the dealerships to open on Sundays. It would simply allow them to open. To put it another way, it would allow competition.

Sunday car sales have been banned in Illinois since 1984. Many dealers wanted to be able to take the day off, but they didn't want to lose business to other dealers. They solved the problem by persuading the General Assembly to make their competitors take the day off, too.

It took more than three decades to do this. Gov. Adlai Stevenson vetoed a bill in 1951, saying it was probably unconstitutional. Gov. William Stratton vetoed another one in 1957, for the same reason. Gov. Otto Kerner signed a Sunday sales ban in 1961, but the state Supreme Court struck it down.

After the current law was signed by Gov. James Thompson in 1982, a handful of dealers challenged it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The dealers lost. So did you.

Sunday would be a great day to buy a car, don't you think? It's half of the prime two-day shopping window known as the weekend.

A car isn't a grab-and-go purchase, like a gallon of milk. It's not the sort of purchase you can research online and then go pick up — like a lawn mower, for example. Auto shoppers want to kick the tires, check out the interior, compare colors and models of the same car, take a test drive. They also want to bargain shop, which means visiting more than one showroom.

More than 30 years ago, a law was passed by Illinois legislators banning the sales of...

That's a lot to cram into one day. It's even harder to do during the typical Monday-to-Friday work week. The blue car you kind of liked on Tuesday evening could be gone by Thursday, before you've had a chance to check out the red one at the dealership across town. And the showrooms are really crowded on Saturdays. Guess why.

But this isn't about what's convenient for you.

Besides Illinois, there are 17 states that ban or restrict car sales on Sunday. Rhode Island limits hours to noon to 6 p.m., for example. Michigan allows Sunday sales in counties with a population less than 130,000. North Dakota allows dealerships to open on Sunday but not to make sales.

In 1982, the lobbyists in Illinois argued that a seven-day week could drive dealers out of business. Closing on Sundays would save on payroll and overhead, they said. It would also help them hire and retain better employees.

Their arguments haven't changed. Opening the showrooms on Sunday means salespeople would have to work the entire weekend. Customers don't really want to buy on Sundays. A We Ask America poll in March found, though, that 60 percent of respondents would like to have that option.

Illinois doesn't dictate the hours of operation for other businesses to shield them from competition. Barber and beauty salons are traditionally closed on Monday, but if you really want a haircut, you can find a shop that's open. Some restaurants are closed on slower weeknights, while others capitalize by declaring Taco Tuesday. That's free enterprise.

This is Oberweis' second attempt to repeal the ban on Sunday car sales. Last year, he asked the Federal Trade Commission to analyze the bill.

Its conclusion: "Repealing the mandatory Sunday closing provisions of the Illinois Vehicle Code will enhance competition and benefit consumers."

In written comments to the Senate, the FTC staff said the law makes it hard for consumers to comparison shop, raises their search costs and results in higher prices, less favorable lease terms and "a market that is unresponsive to consumer preferences."

Speaking of unresponsive: The current bill is parked in the Senate Assignments Committee, where the last one died. Consumers lose.